You probably didn't realize the colloquialism "to sashay" came from the French "chassé": See how educational this blog can be? But not nearly as educational as hearing the gentleman photographing you above speak about the Silk Road Flora! Trained as a horticulturist and garden designer, he now runs a tour company (Vira Nature Tours) with his wife Basak, with whom he wrote and photographed the exquisite book below:
The Silk road not only crosses 5000 miles of Eurasia, it was the main channel of communication between East Asia and Europe for hundreds of years. It skirts hundreds of mountain ranges and bisects the largest steppe biome on the planet. Chris will be bringing a number of this book to sell at the Steppe Summit on September 15 at Denver Botanic Gardens--it is currently out of print and I noticed that Amazon only has copies starting at over $899! The book has stunning photography of over 500 wildflowers growing from Turkey to China along the Silk Road.
Here is a photograph of Fritillaria eduardii taken this past spring at Denver Botanic Gardens Steppe garden. This is the most recently designed garden at the York St. site of DBG--and has generated much interest and curiosity.
The Steppes are where humankind first evolved, and where much of the drama of our history has transpired. The steppe flora has provided most of the staples foods that sustain us, and the steppes of Asia are the current stage where many of the world's political flashpoints are found. To understand the Steppe is to understand humanity.
Click here to find out more about and to sign up for this year's Steppe Symposium
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